


The Day We Met

by aintweproudriff



Series: Dutchie Fake-Dating [1]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Kind of a fake dating au kind of not, M/M, Valentine's Day, david is lonely and falls fast, the world needs more happy dutchie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-15 17:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13618092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: " “Uh, how are you doing? And who’s this?” Noah pointed at Crutchie.“This is-”“Crutchie,” Crutchie removed his hand from Davey’s and shook Noah’s hand. “His boyfriend.”"In which Davey needs a fake boyfriend for a few minutes and ends up falling much too hard, much too fast.





	1. Valentine's Eve

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heck_the_peck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heck_the_peck/gifts).



> Valentine's fake dating au? Of a semi-rarepair that's actually one of the best ships ever? What more could a person want?

“Hi! Look, this is gonna be weird,” was not usually a way Davey liked to start conversations with strangers. In fact, it was probably one of his top-ten worst ways to start any interaction. And yet here he was, trying to talk to a person in a grocery store who was admittedly very cute, and he had just let those words come out of his mouth.  
No going back now. 

“Uh, and I know that sounds really bad, but hear me out, okay?”  
Smooth, Jacobs. Way to make it better. The cute stranger - he shouldn’t call him that, but he couldn’t help it - raised his left eyebrow and the left side of his mouth in a way that Davey hoped meant ‘go on’. 

“So I just saw my ex-boyfriend walk in and,” he took a deep breath, finding it incredibly difficult to keep eye contact instead of looking around at all the food and colorful holiday decorations, “our breakup was really bad. It was really hard for both of us when he moved and then when we tried to be long distance and he broke up with me for some girl in another state and it took so long for it all to end but I missed it and him for like two years after it ended and-” he broke off. “I don’t know why I had to give you that backstory but for some reason it just spilled out. My point is, would you be able and willing to-”

“-pretend to be your significant other so you don’t look like a lonely, single loser on the day before Valentine’s Day?” the stranger said with a knowing smile, shifting his weight on his forearm crutches. 

Davey nodded. 

“Easy. I’m already finishing your sentences, aren’t I?”

Davey laughed in relief. “Yeah. You are.” He could feel his face turn bright red, but he didn’t care. 

“What’s your name?” the boy asked. “I don’t really want to keep calling you ‘lonely, single loser’ in my head.”

“David,” he said, and stuck out his hand. 

The other boy shook it, squeezing gently. “Nice to meet you, David. You can call me Charlie or you can call me Crutchie, I don’t really care.”

Davey furrowed his eyebrows. “You don’t care? Isn’t that like-”

“-Horribly offensive? A little, yeah. But it’s cool, y’know?” he laughed, leaning backwards, so he was almost leaning into the rack of chips. “All my friends and I have nicknames for each other, and most of them are a little offensive at least. It’s half the fun.”

Davey must have still been making a sour face, because his new friend/fake-boyfriend rolled his eyes. 

“Just call me Charlie if it bugs you,” he shrugged. “But I actually prefer Crutchie with people I like, and if we’re gonna pretend to like each other, I feel like the nickname is a good way to go.”

“Crutchie it is,” Davey nodded quickly. The name tasted like copper in his mouth, but if it was what this guy liked to be called, then who was he to judge? 

A beat of silence passed in which the two of them looked nervously at each other. 

“So, uh, how should we do this?” Crutchie eventually said. “Do we wanna like, hang out together and hope he eventually notices us, or would you rather we hold hands and act super gooey and follow him around a little bit?”

Davey nodded and smiled, thinking it over. “I know the second one sounds like something that only a bad person would do, but I kind of really want to do it.”

“Okay, alright. That works for me,” Crutchie said. Without permission, he reached up and set his basket in Davey’s cart. “Are you a good actor, David?”

He blinked. “I, uh, acted a little bit in high school.”

Crutchie’s eyes glinted like he was up to something. Or maybe that was just the awful fluorescent lights in the store. “And how long ago was that?”

“Why do you wanna know?”

“So I know if our age gap is weird, David,” he smiled. Davey found himself liking the way Crutchie said the name. He popped the last ‘d’ a little bit, so that it almost sounded like ‘david-a’. “Is it more straightforward to ask how old you are?”

“I’m 22.”

“Okay, good. That’s not an issue then,” Crutchie said, resting a hand on the handle of the shopping cart. “I’m a little older, but not much. Now,” he bounced up, “where’s this boy?”

“I saw him over there, in the candy aisle,” Davey pointed. 

“Great, let’s go over there, then.”

Before Davey really knew what was happening, his cart was moving away from him. Crutchie pushed it out from under him, and as David struggled to keep up, he heard Crutchie whisper “just make sure you keep up the charade.”

He was able to barely register that maybe this was a bad idea and maybe he should call it off, but only as Crutchie pushed the cart into the candy aisle. Yeah, the fucking candy aisle, right before Valentine’s Day. Cheesy. Why had David ever dated this guy, again? 

They passed him, the wheels of the cart squeaking softly against the white speckled floor. He raised his head, pausing from reading the ingredients on a package of clearance chocolate.  
His voice squeaked a little bit before he finally got out a word. “Davey?” he said, turning around and blinking like he couldn’t understand that he’d really just seen his ex. 

“Noah!” Davey says, straightening his back and smiling. “Hey!”

He was about to stick his hand out, to shake Noah’s hand, but Crutchie grabbed his hand before he could do anything. He made a tiny squeaking sound, similar to Noah’s, and then grinned at Crutchie. 

“Hi, Noah, how are you?”

“I’m good, Davey,” he said, running his tongue gently over his own bottom lip. “Uh, how are you doing? And who’s this?” Noah pointed at Crutchie.

“This is-”

“Crutchie,” Crutchie removed his hand from Davey’s and shook Noah’s hand. “His boyfriend.”

“Oh!” Noah’s eyebrows shot up, his hands dropping to his side. “I didn’t realize, uh, I didn’t know - I hadn’t heard you were dating someone! That’s cool though, how long have you two been together?”

Crutchie went silent for half of a second, and David’s brain kicked into overdrive. 

“Uh, we’re coming up on a year now, right babe?” he stuttered out, mostly to Crutchie instead of to Noah. But he knew the impact that would have. ‘Babe’ had never been a word he’d used for Noah, or for any boyfriend before then. 

“Yep!” Crutchie smiled wide. 

“Are you, uh, dating anyone right now?” David asks, gesturing to what Noah was holding. “Buying those chocolates for anyone?”

Noah’s ears turned red, as did the rest of his face, and his dimple peeked out, and now David remembered why he had dated him. “Yeah,” he nodded. “She’s really great. She’s, oh man, she’s the best.” He looked up, suddenly, and his eyes glazed over with determination. “I’m gonna ask her to marry me. Tomorrow night, I hope.” He laughed. “If I don’t chicken out.”

Davey smiled at him, truly happy that Noah had found a person with whom he could be happy. He tried to ignore the pang of jealousy he felt. 

“That’s incredible!” Davey felt himself reaching for Crutchie’s hand. A sensation of warmth shot through him when he felt Crutchie link his fingers in between Davey’s and squeeze his hand. 

Noah’s inhale was audible. “It kinda is, isn’t it? Uh,” he looked down at the chocolates he was still holding “Which one of these says, ‘I’m about to ask you to marry me in twenty-seven hours. You’re not supposed to know that, but you’re smarter than I am so you probably do, and I’m chill but please say yes’?” 

Crutchie laughed. This boy, David decided, was getting along a little too well with Noah. Not that that was his fault, of course. Noah had enough charm to talk to a snake, something David wished he could say about himself. 

“The one with the raspberries, for sure,” Crutchie pointed to the chocolate bar in Noah’s left hand. “It’s romantic, but it’s not quite as sweet as the one with caramel, you know?”

Noah looked up at David’s sort-of-boyfriend with surprise. “I have no idea what you mean, but I’m gonna take that advice.” He switched his gaze to David. “He’s a keeper, huh?”

“Uh, well, I mean-”

“I don’t know if I’m a keeper, but he sure is,” Crutchie saved the day, bumping into Davey gently. “It’s weird, how you don’t expect something to work and then, somehow, it just clicks. Random and strange circumstances can bring people together in some strange ways, huh?”

Davey laughed. “Yeah, they can. Kinda weird how that happens. But yeah, he’s a keeper. He’s saved my ass too many times to not be, at this point.”

“He owes me, see,” Crutchie teased, grabbing onto the hem of David’s shirt. “And he’s never gonna be able to pay me back, so I think he’s stuck with me.”

Noah grinned at them, placing the chocolate in his cart. “You two are a good pair. I’m glad you’re happy, Davey,” he cringed and inhaled, “especially after everything that happened between us. That wasn’t easy, for either of us, you know? But I think it worked out for the best.”

Davey forced a smile, resisting the urge to let himself break his new character that he was acting: the one who didn’t mind if Noah was off somewhere, with his almost-fiance, the one who had a boyfriend who loved him enough to tease him in public and go grocery shopping and get things for himself and put them in his cart like it was no big deal. “Yeah, I agree. It really helped me grow as a person, I think.”

“That’s the best thing about you, Dave,” Noah reached over and patted his shoulder. “You can reflect on yourself in a way that not many of us can. You’re a good man.”

Davey smiled bitterly. 

“I should get going, though,” he smiled and waved his hands around. “I’ve got some big stuff coming up, and all that. It was good to see you, Davey, and nice to meet you, Crutchie. Have a, uh, good Valentine’s Day.”

“You too.”

“Nice to meet you too, Noah.”

Noah walked down the aisle and turned the corner to check out. Not the only aisle he’d be walking down, if everything went right for him.  
Crutchie and David walked to the end of the aisle, holding hands. David dropped Crutchie’s hand as soon as they were out of sight of Noah. 

“Thanks, Crutchie,” David said, ignoring the acidic lump in the back of his throat. “Thank you for helping me out. It means a lot to me.”

Crutchie looked almost sorry for David. “You’re-you’re welcome.” 

“And hey, uh, if I ever happen to run into you again, I’ll owe you something,” David offered, trying to be kind. “Or I’d be more than happy to help you pay for your groceries, if you want. It’d be the least I could do, really.”

Crutchie looked at a loss for words. David didn’t blame him; it would have been difficult to miss the way that he wilted after that conversation. “Yeah, alright. Uh, it was no problem, really. But you should do whatever makes you feel better.”

David nodded. “Are you ready to check out?”

He nodded absently. 

Checking out passed by in a blur. David paid for half of Crutchie’s groceries, which thankfully wasn’t much more than he had planned on buying for himself. 

“Thank you again, Crutchie,” David said as Crutchie finished bagging up his purchases. “It helped me out a lot to not be an awkward, single loser.”

Crutchie’s eyes were serious. “You’re not a loser, no matter how single you are. Promise.”

“Thanks,” Davey said, legitimately grateful to this stranger-turned-friend. “Really, thank you. I know it was awkward, but you really helped. I mean, more than anything, I think I just didn’t wanna be alone to deal with my ex-boyfriend. It was good to have someone there to hold my hand. So seriously, if you ever need anything, I’d be down.”

Crutchie paused and shifted his weight. “First of all, don’t get too sappy. I was trying to console my own single self just as much as I was trying to console you.” 

If Davey was relieved that Crutchie was single, it was only because he wouldn’t have wanted to make someone fake-cheat on their significant other. Nothing more.

“Secondly, I might just have to take you up on that,” Crutchie dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Put your number in, so I can give you a text if I need something.”

“Something like a fake boyfriend?” Davey said, smiling genuinely again, and doing as he was told. 

“Yeah, exactly.”

-

On his way home, Davey felt like he should have been sad. It would have made sense to be sad, after seeing that his ex-boyfriend had moved on completely from their relationship and was now successfully in another one. Davey had moved on from the relationship, but he hadn’t been in another serious relationship since. Should he have been in one?  
He didn’t spend too long thinking about it; an odd accomplishment, given that everyone knew he was a chronic overthinker. Instead, he let himself relish in the odd Valentine’s Day butterflies he felt in his stomach. He didn’t even ask for an explanation of why they were there, just let them flutter around happily, lifting him home until he laid down on the couch, grinning.  
Davey looked at his phone. He didn’t know what he expected to be there. A text, maybe. It didn't matter. A good day was a good day.


	2. Valentine's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy valentines day yall! i love you guys a lot

David woke up the next morning to a glowing phone screen. The texts were from a number he didn’t recognize. 

New contact: okay so i feel bad but you said that if i need anything i should text you and well. I need something now.  
New contact: some family friends have been engaged for a couple months and i was planning on going to the wedding alone but i just found out that my homophobic piece of shit aunts and uncles are gonna be there and ive wanted to piss them off for years.  
New contact: so id be able to return the favor i did for you yesterday if you came to the wedding as my date. Please??? [heart emoji, angel emoji]  
New contact: oh yeah. This is crutchie, btw.

David smiled softly and wiped the sleep from his eyes. Only then did he realize that he’d fallen asleep on his couch. That wasn’t something he’d done often before; usually it was only when he was drunk or truly exhausted that he let his routine slip like that. He let out a whispered swear when he realized that meant he hadn’t plugged his phone in overnight. Sure enough, it was only at thirteen percent. Standing up, he walked over to the wall outlet that had his phone charger attached. He plugged the phone in, then sank to sit down next to the wall. The first thing he did was to enter Crutchie in as a new contact. Then, he set out to type a response. 

“Hi, Crutchie,” he typed. Yeah, that would work.  
“Nice to hear from you!” Okay, good start.  
“I’d love to go to the wedding with you.” No, scratch that.  
Change it to: “I’d be down to return the favor. It’s only fair, after all. And who am I to turn down pissing off homophobes?” Good one, David. Funny, kind, not too eager. He clicked send. 

“I’d need more information, though,” he typed in. Crutchie had triple-texted, so David assumed he could double-text. He sent it, deciding it was better to let Crutchie choose how to give David the run-down on the wedding. 

A text came in response only seconds later, while Davey was checking his social media feed. 

Crutchie: thank you so so much! Makes sense that you need more information. Weddings are hard to deal with even when you’re actually dating someone lol.  
Crutchie: wanna meet up and talk about it?  
Crutchie: theres a coffee shop not to far from the grocery store where we were yesterday.

David grinned. A coffee date (it wasn’t a date, he half-heartedly reminded himself: it was an informational meeting) seemed like it could be fun. He wouldn’t say no to spending time with Crutchie, or course, and he knew the coffee shop Crutchie meant. It was a nice little place, cleverly titled “Hug in a Mug”. 

He texted Crutchie a meeting time and headed out.

-

What he had forgotten about the coffee shop, he realized as he walked in, was that they decorated the entire shop for every holiday. The last time he’d been there, it had been Thanksgiving, and the whole place was yellow, red, and autumnal. The time before that, it had been the Fourth of July, and everything was gaudily American. Even before that, a few years ago, he’d gone there with Noah for a coffee on New Year’s Day, and everything was champagne themed.  
Therefore, the whole shop was decorated in hues of reds, pinks, and whites for Valentine’s Day. It was warm, but also a little disgusting. He almost didn’t even see the cherubs on the wall, he was so distracted by the hearts dangling from the ceiling.  
His name was called as, in a stupor, he spun around to admire the decorations. 

“David! Daaavid!” Crutchie had his hands over his mouth, not bothering to stand up from a little table in the corner of the shop.  
David saw him and raised his hand, grinning as he walked over to Crutchie.

“I already bought myself a coffee,” Crutchie leaned forward as David sat down, “but I’ll buy you one too, as a thank you for helping me out.”

“Oh, uh, you don’t have to, I’m happy to help you after you helpe-”

“And you paid for half of my groceries, David,” Crutchie smiled. It had been less than twenty-four hours since David had seen Crutchie smile, and already he found that he had missed it. “It’s the least I’d be able to do for you agreeing to meet me here.” 

David shrugged. “I won’t say no to that.”

Opening his wallet, Crutchie slipped out a credit card. “Here,” he said, handing it over. “Buy something, come back, and then we’ll talk, alright?”

David rested his arms on the table. “Crutchie,” he said, lowering his voice to almost a whisper, “we met yesterday. You’re okay with giving me this?”

“Get out of here,” Crutchie rolled his eyes. “Just go buy something.”

“I could be a super scammer!” David pointed out, probably too loudly, but he held on to Crutchie’s card and walked up to the counter. 

Crutchie was on his phone when David came back to the table, chocolate mocha in hand. He took a sip and sat down, trying not to notice the way Crutchie’s cheeks looked in the glow of the string of pink lights that the shop had put up. 

“So,” Davey said, breathing softly, as if he thought anything might disrupt the calm of the shop. “What’s the plan with this wedding?”

Crutchie breathed out a tiny laugh. “It’s my mom’s best friend’s daughter; she used to babysit me when my mom and my dad went out, she’s like four years older than me. She and her husband met in high school, they’re super cute. Actually,” he rolled his eyes in memory, “she used to try to put me to bed early so they could talk on the phone. They were that couple. And he proposed when they graduated, and she said, and I quote, ‘yes, but I want to graduate college first’. She was a badass, even if she was kinda annoying.”

Crutchie prattled on, giving details about the couple and who would be at the wedding and his family and how they would be related to some of the attendees and so on, but David found himself having difficulty concentrating. His eyes ended up focused on Crutchie’s face: his eyes, his tiny, almost invisible freckles, his lip-

“So it should be pretty easy, I think, to bring you to the wedding,” he set his coffee cup down matter-of-factly. “The only person that I think is going to suspect anything is my cousin, and that’s just because we told each other everything when we were kids. She told me she was bi and I told her I was gay on the same day when we were eleven and twelve. We didn’t even know the terms, really. She said she liked boys and I said that I did too. Then she said that she liked girls and I turned up my nose at the thought.” He laughed at the memory, and David forced himself to laugh too, even though he hadn’t heard most of the story. 

“Okay, I think I get it, then,” Davey grinned and took a sip. His coffee was almost half gone, despite him having ordered a large. “Pretty easy, just use basically the same alibi we gave Noah.”

“Yep,” Crutchie fiddled with the lid on his cup, “we’ve been dating for about a year, and we didn’t tell our families or friends because we felt like it would be too much pressure if they knew, what with so many people we knew getting married.”

David nodded. “We thought it would be better to let it take its course alone, right?”

“Exactly.”

A moment of silence passed, and the song changed from one love song to another. 

“So,” Crutchie broke the awkwardness with a smile. “You introduced yourself as David, but I couldn’t help but notice how Noah called you Davey. If I can ask, why don’t you use that name?”

“Oh, I normally don’t introduce myself as Davey. Only my family and close friends have ever called me that,” Davey blushed slightly. 

“I gave you my nickname!” Crutchie protested jokingly. And, oh, his hand was right next to David’s. 

“True, you did. That was your choice though,” David pointed out. 

Crutchie conceded, moving his hand. “That’s fair.”

David almost missed the closeness. No, scratch the ‘almost’. How long had it been since David had held a hand? Well it was yesterday, with Crutchie, obviously. But other than that? He couldn’t remember. 

“It’s cute, though,” Crutchie tilted his head to the side, and a strand of hair fell in his eyes. “I like it.”

“You can use it, if you want.” 

He’d said it before he even really considered it. It made sense, however, to let Crutchie use the nickname. Once David called someone ‘babe,’ they could probably reserve the right to call him whatever they wanted. 

“Thanks, I’m honored,” Crutchie ran a hand through his hair. 

David felt his pulse elevate. “You should be. It’s a big deal.”

Crutchie rolled his eyes. “Sure, okay,” he smiled, and took a drink of his coffee. He shook the cup. “I’m out of coffee,” he said with an awkward grin and a shrug. 

“I’m not yet,” David returned the look, and watched as Crutchie shifted nervously in his seat. “Oh! But, uh, if you want to leave or something, that’s totally alright with me. Um, and I could come with you. Or if you had planned on only talking about the wedding and the alibi then I could stay here or go my own way or-”

“Davey?” Crutchie said, using the nickname for the first time with his eyebrows raised. “Chill. I was about to ask if you wanted to hang out some more, if you’re cool with that.”

He, quite frankly, was an idiot. 

“Hm? Uh, yeah,” he hated the fact that he was blushing, “that sounds like fun! Uh, did you have something you wanted to do, specifically?”

Crutchie grinned and began to stand up. “No, not really,” he said, fixing the bands on his crutches and straightening his back. “Should we just walk around?”

“Sure, sure.”

Crutchie led him out of the coffee shop, stopping on the stoop that led up to the door. Davey blinked as sunlight hit his eyes and cold air that smelled like gas emissions instead of coffee beans battered his face. 

“Anywhere specific we should go?” Crutchie asked. 

“Not that I can think of,” Davey answered and took a sip of his coffee. It was a little cold, but certainly warmer than the biting air. It didn’t warm up his insides as much as he had hoped it would, but the smile Crutchie gave him did something close enough to that.  
But then his smile didn’t end, and it turned quickly into something almost teasing.

“Okay,” Davey asked, his shoulders lowering. “What’s that look for?”

“You’ve got-” Crutchie touched his own face gently, “-some foam from your coffee on your cheek.”

“Oh!” Davey managed to say, wiping at his face. “There. Did I get it off?”

Crutchie actually giggled. “Not quite.”

Davey tried again, apparently fruitlessly. 

“Here,” Crutchie said, stepping forward and looking up. The height difference between the two of them was so big, Davey nearly had to touch his chin to his chest to meet Crutchie’s eyes when he was practically underneath him like that. Crutchie reached his hand up to touch David’s cheek, and Davey could feel his heart beating out of his chest when Crutchie wiped the foam away and grinned. 

“There you g-” Crutchie started to say, and almost took a full step backwards. But David stopped him, cut him off by reaching around his back, his arm resting just above Crutchie’s waist. He barely had a moment to breathe before connecting his lips to Crutchie’s.  
And then it was like they were inside the coffee shop again. Warmth and red and pink and white swirled around Davey’s head, and he couldn’t truthfully say that he hadn’t just seen paper heart cutouts or heard cheesy romance songs.  
Crutchie returned the kiss with just as much hope as David had started out with, until he backed away slightly. 

“So,” Crutchie breathed. His breath was warm, foggy in the chilly air. 

“So.”

Crutchie hit him softly. “Don’t make fun of me. Either you do that again or let’s go do something else.”

“Again, for sure,” David said, and Crutchie leaned back in, satisfied with the way he had chirped David. 

This time, Davey was the one to pull away first. “Should we get going?” He reached down to take Crutchie’s hand. “To, I don’t know, somewhere that’s not in the middle of the world?”

“Yeah,” Crutchie squeezed and then dropped Davey’s hand, beginning to walk away from the door of the coffee shop, finally. “I don’t know where we should go, though.”

“Can we just walk around a little bit?” David asked. “Or we can head to my house, that’s a decent walking distance.”

“That’s a good idea,” Crutchie said. After a few moments of the ensuing silence, he cracked a smile and a tiny laugh. 

Davey turned his head to Crutchie. “What? Do I have something on my face again?”

“No, no. I just realized that I won’t have to lie at the wedding,” Crutchie grinned. “That’s a plus.”

“No more lying.”

“No more lying.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Make sure to tell me what you think, and come say hi on tumblr @allbesolucky


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